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PART  49  VOLUME  5 


Bat^anD-GulldCtorapanij, 
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J 


V 


MASTERS    IN    ART 


Musicians  Library 


TWO  NEW  VOLUMES  OF  THIS  SUPERB  WORK 

ROBERT  SCHUMANN 

FIFTY  SONGS 

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Portrait  of  composer,  biographical  essay,  advice  to  players,  and  154  pages  of  music 


FRANZ  LISZT 

TWENTY   TRANSCRIPTIONS 

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Portrait  of  composer,  biography,  and  174  pages  of  music 

OLIVER   DITSON  COMPANY,  BOSTON,  MASS. 


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MASTERS  IN  ART  FOR  1904 

91  Brief  prospectus 


;HE   painters   to  be   presented   in  'Masters  in   Art'  during    1904  —  the   fifth 
year  of  the  Series — make  it  already  certain  that  in  variety,  in  interest,  and  in 
the  charm  of  its  pictures  the  forthcoming  volume  of  the  magazine  will  not  be 
surpassed  by  any  of  its  predecessors. 


HE  following  is  a  partial  list  of  painters  to  be  considered.   The 
remaining  names,  to  be  announced  later,  are  of  no  less  interest. 


C.FRA  BARTOLOMMEO,  the  friar  painter  of 
Madonnas  and  Holy  Families,  who  with  his  own 
intuitive  sense  of  symmetry,  science  of  composi- 
tion, and  tender  feeling  combined  something  of 
Raphael's  grace. 

CDURER'S  ENGRAVINGS.  The  first  number 
of  the  Series  to  be  devoted  wholly  to  engravings 
will  have  for  its  subject  the  unmatched  copperplates 
and  woodcuts  of  Albrecht  Diirer,  the  greatest  mas- 
ter of  engraving  the  world  has  seen.  Among  the 
plat  is  to  be  reproduced  may  be  named  those  mas- 
terpieces of  imagination  and  technical  skill,  the 
"Melancholia"  and  "The  Knight,  Death,  ami 
the  Devil." 

C.COPLEY,  the  famous  American  painter  of  por- 
traits in  Colonial  days. 


C.VERONESE,  whose  art  was  the  most  gorgeous 
of  all  the  Venetian  school,  and  who  elevated 
pageantry  to  the  height  of  most  serious  art. 

C.LANDSEER,  the  English  painter  of  dogs  and 
other  animals,  who  expressed  the  emotional  natures 
ot  the  beasts  he  portrayed. 

C.MEISSONIER,  whom  French  grace  grafted 
upon  Dutch  fidelity  made  the  master  of  modern 
genre-painting. 

C.PINTORICCHIO,  a  portrayer  of  the  manners 
and  costumes  of  his  day  in  scenes  of  wonderful 
decorative  quality. 


IN  general  plan  «  Masters  in  Art  '  will  remain  unchanged,  continuing  to  present 
all  the  features  of  previous  years,  while  advantage  will  be  taken  of  every  im- 
provement in  photography,  engraving,  and  printing  that  may  make  its  illustra- 
tions more  faithful  and  beautiful  reproductions  of  their  originals. 


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C^e  Colonial  architecture        Cnglisty  Country  f  ougeg 


of  JUarplanto,  f)cnnsptoanta,  anU  ©irainia 
91  Collection  of  jFiftp  pates 

This  Collection,  edited  by  Mr.  Joseph  Everett 
Chandler,  reproduces,  from  photographs  made 
under  the  direction  of  the  author,  the  most  beau- 
tiful and  suggestive  examples  of  Colonial  archi- 
tecture in  this  region.  Most  of  the  views  show 
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ings exclusively;  and,  taken  together,  this  and 
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&  Collection  of  ©ne  ^unUreU  pates,  Bep= 
resenting  One  |)antoreto  anti  Ctoentp=four 

|>0ttSe6 

This  collection  of  photographic  views  shows  a 
wide  variety  of  picturesque  houses,  mainly  of 
small  and  medium  size,  which  are  suggestive  for 
country-house  building  in  this  country.  It  rep- 
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Many  of  the  most  useful  and  beautiful  of  the 
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sent a  type  thoroughly  adapted  to  American 
needs,  are  shown  in  this  collection  of  eighty- 
seven  exterior  and  thirteen  interior  photographic 
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Contains  five  hundred  and  forty-five  illustra- 
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and  farm-barns,  representing  the  best  recent  work 
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specialists  on  stable-planning,  stable  essentials, 
and  farm-barns.  An  invaluably  suggestive  vol- 
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CjJExercise  Your  Skin 

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Sapolio,  the  only  soap  that  liberates  the  activities 
of  the  pores  without  working  chemical  changes. 
Costs  but  a  trifle. 

CJThe  Perfect  Purity 

of  Hand  Sapolio  makes  it  a  very  desirable  toilet 
article;  it  contains  no  animal  fats,  but  is  made 
from  the  most  healthful  of  the  vegetable  oils.  It 
is  truly  the  "  Dainty  Woman's  Friend."  Its  use 
is  a  fine  habit. 


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335727 


MASTERS   IN   AET     PLATE  I 

PHOTOGRAPH    BY   BRAUN,    CLEMENT    &   CIE 

[3] 


FRA   BARTOLOMJIEO 
MADONNA  AND  CHILD   WITH  ST.   ELIZABETH  AND  ST.  JOHN 
COLLECTION   OF   SIR   FREDERICK   COOK 


MASTERS   IN    AKT      PLATE  II 

PHOTOGRAPH    BY    ALINARI 


[5] 


FKA   HAETOLOMMEO 

ST.  CATHEBINE  AJV1I   5IAEI   .MAGIIALEXE  IN  ADOUATION 

LUCCA   GALLERY 


MASTERS  IN  ABT     PLATE  III 

PHOTOGRAPH  BY  BRAUN,  CLEMENT  &  CIE 
[7] 


EBA    KAKTOLOHMEO 

THE  MADONNA  OF  FEEET  CABONDELET 

BESANCON  CATHEDEAL 


MASTERS   IX    ART      PLATE  IV 

FROM    A    PHOTOGRAVURE    8Y    lEMERCIER 

[9] 


I'HA   HAKTOLOMHEO 

THE  HOLY    FAMILY 

COLLECTION  OF    EARL  COWPEK 


MASTERS   IN  ART 

PHOTOGRAPH    BY    Al 
[11] 


FRA   BARTOLOMMEO 

THE  MADONNA   DELLA  MISERICORIHA 

LUCCA  GALLEHT 


MASTEBS  m  AKT  PLATE  VI 

PHOTOGRAPH  BY  BRAUN,  CLEMENT  A  CIE 

[18] 


FKA   BAKTOLOJIMEO 

MAKKIAGE  OF  ST.   CATHERINE  OF  S1EXA 

LOUVHE,  PAKIS 


MASTERS   1ST   ART      PLATE   VIII 

PHOTOGRAPH  BY  BRAUN  CLEMENT  i.   CIE 


FRA  KAKTOLOMMEO 
THE  MADONNA   AND  CHILD  WITH  ANGELS 
HERMITAGE  GALLERY,   ST.   PETERSBURG 


[17] 


w  a 


g  "•  3 


s  - 


~    X 


a  a, 


MASTERS   IN  ART      PLATE  X 

PHOTOGRAPH    BY   ALINARI 


[21] 


KHA   BAETOL05I.MKI1 

MADONNA  BETWEEN  ST.   STEPHEN  AND  ST.  JOHN  BAPTIST 

LUCCA    CATHEDRAL 


POBTBAIT  OK   FIIA    1IAHTOLOMSIEO  CFFIZI  GALLEltY.   ETlOBENGE 

This  portrait  of  Fra  Bartolommeo,  the  only  one  that  is  known  to  exist,  was  painted 
by  himself  "with  the  aid  of  a  minor,  nyt  Vasari.  He  has  represented  himself, 
in  hi  monk's  habit,  as  one  of  the  spectator-  in  the  large  picture  of  the  Madonna 
surrounded  bj  taints,  which  in  I  510  the  Signory  of  Florence  commissioned  him  to 
paint  for  the  Council  Hall.  Thi«  work,  never  carried  beyond  the  monochrome  state, 
now  hangs  in  the  Uffisi  Gallerv,   Florence. 

[22] 


MASTERS    IN     ART 


ffixn  W&vtolommtQ 


BORN    1475  :    DIED   1517 
FLORENTINE    SCHOOL 


FRA  BARTOLOMMEO  was  the  son  of  a  poor  mule-driver,  Paolo  del 
Fattorino  by  name,  who  lived  near  the  gate  of  San  Piero  Gattolini,  just 
outside  the  walls  of  Florence.  It  was  there,  and  not  at  Savignano  as  Vasari 
has  stated,  that,  in  the  year  147  5,  Bartolommeo  was  born;  and  on  account 
of  the  location  of  his  father's  house  was  known  in  his  youth  as  Baccio 
(the  diminutive  of  Bartolommeo,  pronounced  Batch'yo)  della  Porta,  "of  the 
Gate." 

At  an  early  age  the  boy  showed  such  an  aptitude  for  drawing  that,  upon 
the  advice  of  the  sculptor  Benedetto  da  Maiano,  his  father  placed  him,  when 
only  nine  years  old,  in  the  studio  of  Cosimo  Rosselli,  a  painter  of  Florence, 
where  he  quickly  won  the  affection  and  confidence  of  his  master  by  his  prog- 
ress and  the  faithful  performance  of  all  the  duties  assigned  to  him. 

Among  the  pupils  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  in  Rosselli's  work- 
shop was  Mariotto  Albertinelli,  the  son  of  a  gold-beater,  and  his  senior  by  a 
year,  whose  gay  and  somewhat  boisterous  disposition  was  in  marked  contrast 
to  the  serious  and  gentle  nature  of  the  young  Bartolommeo,  but  who,  never- 
theless, became  his  chosen  and  closest  friend. 

At  the  end  of  an  apprenticeship  of  six  or  seven  years  the  two  lads,  whose 
mutual  affection  was  so  great  that,  according  to  Vasari,  "they  became,  as  it 
were,  one  body  and  one  soul,"  feeling  that  they  had  nothing  more  to  learn  from 
Cosimo  Rosselli,  formed  a  partnership,  rented  a  studio  in  common,  and  be- 
gan the  practice  of  their  profession  on  their  own  account.  Both  young  artists 
undoubtedly  spent  much  time  in  the  Medici  gardens,  where  Lorenzo  de' 
Medici,  then  ruler  of  Florence,  had  collected  many  valuable  specimens  of 
antique  statuary,  which  were  eagerly  studied  by  all  the  Florentine  artists  of 
that  day;  but  while  Albertinelli  devoted  his  whole  attention  to  copying  these 
marbles,  Bartolommeo  studied  also  the  works  of  Masaccio,  of  Filippino  Lippi, 
and,  above  all,  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci.  His  progress  was  rapid,  and  his  influ- 
ence over  his  friend  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  art,  in  spite  of  their  different 
dispositions,  so  strong  that  in  Albertinelli's  best  compositions  his  work  bears 
a  striking  resemblance  to  that  of  Bartolommeo. 

[23] 


24  MASTERS     IN     ART 

The  dissimilarity  in  the  natures  of  the  two  friends  was  forcibly  shown  at 
the  time  when  Savonarola,  the  renowned  preaching  friar  and  reformer,  was 
stirring  Florence  to  its  very  depths  by  his  vehement  denunciations  of  the  de- 
pravity of  the  times.  Terrified  by  the  pending  doom  that  he  foretold  the 
people  thronged  the  churches  to  listen  to  his  words,  and  many  of  the  most 
powerful  and  influential  of  the  Florentines  became  his  followers.  Among 
those  who  most  ardently  embraced  his  cause  was  Bartolommeo,  who  was 
one  of  his  earliest  and  most  zealous  adherents.  Albertinelli,  on  the  contrary, 
joined  the  opposing  faction,  and  openly  scoffed  at  the  Piagnoni,  or  "Mourn- 
ers," as  the  followers  of  Savonarola  were  derisively  called.  The  rupture  that 
this  difference  occasioned  between  the  two  young  artists  was,  however,  of 
short  duration,  and  before  long  they  were  again  working  in  partnership. 

The  pictures  painted  by  Bartolommeo  at  this  early  period  cannot  be  iden- 
tified with  certainty.  A  portrait  of  Savonarola,  said  to  be  still  preserved  in  a 
private  collection  at  Prato,  and  of  which  a  copy  is  now  in  the  cell  once  oc- 
cupied by  the  great  reformer  in  the  Convent  of  San  Marco,  Florence,  is  in 
all  probability  a  work  of  this  time;  as  were  also  the  two  small  miniature-like 
panels  now  in  the  UfHzi  Gallery  of  that  city,  on  which  a  'Nativity'  and  a 
'Circumcision'  are  represented  with  exquisite  finish.  These  were  originally 
intended  for  the  doors  of  a  tabernacle  containing  a  'Virgin'  by  Donatello,  and 
are  believed  to  be  among  Bartolommeo's  earliest  known  works.  Many  of  the 
studies  that  would  have  thrown  light  upon  the  beginnings  and  the  progress  of 
his  artistic  career,  however,  were  irretrievably  lost,  when  at  the  carnivals  of 
1497  and  1498,  moved  by  the  exhortations  of  Savonarola,  his  followers  cast 
into  the  bonfires  kindled  in  the  public  square  of  Florence  objects  of  a  worldly 
and  frivolous  nature — musical  instruments,  playing-cards,  articles  of  the 
toilet,  and  the  like  —  and  many  of  the  painters  of  Florence,  among  them 
Bartolommeo,  in  excess  of  zeal  consigned  to  the  flames  all  works  painted 
from  the  nude  or  portraying  profane  or  mythologic  subjects. 

Carried  to  even  greater  lengths  by  his  enthusiasm  for  the  new  ideas  and 
his  feeling  of  affection  for  Savonarola,  Bartolommeo  joined  the  little  band  of 
the  friar's  defenders  when,  in  1498,  the  tide  of  popular  feeling  having  turned, 
an  angry  mob  bent  on  Savonarola's  destruction  besieged  the  Convent  of  San 
Marco,  of  which  Savonarola  was  at  that  time  prior.  It  was  then  that  Barto- 
lommeo, horrified  by  the  deeds  of  violence  that  he  witnessed,  intimidated  by 
the  fury  of  the  populace,  and  overwhelmed  by  grief  when  his  beloved  master 
was  taken  prisoner  and  led  away  to  torture  and  to  death,  threw  down  his 
weapon,  and  made  a  vow  to  become  a  monk  of  the  Order  of  St.  Dominic 
should  heaven  vouchsafe  him  safe  deliverance  from  the  perils  that  beset  him. 

The  vow  thus  taken  was  afterwards  fulfilled,  but  in  the  meantime  Barto- 
lommeo had  duties  to  perform  which  necessitated  the  postponement  of  his 
withdrawal  from  the  world.  The  care  of  a  weak-minded  half-brother,  Piero, 
had  devolved  upon  him  since  the  death  of  his  parents,  and  a  guardian  must 
be  found  to  assume  this  responsibility.  Furthermore,  an  important  commis- 
sion had  been  intrusted  to  Bartolommeo  by  one  Gerozzo  Dini,  who  had  asked 
him  to  decorate  in  fresco  one  of  the  walls  of  a  chapel  that  Dini  had  built  in 

[24] 


FRA      BARTOLOMMEO  25 

the  cemetery  adjoining  the  Hospital  of  Santa  Maria  Nuova,  Florence.  The 
subject  selected  by  the  painter,  whose  soul  had  been  stirred  by  the  preaching 
and  prophecies  of  Savonarola,  was  the  'Last  Judgment;'  and  the  faded  and 
almost  ruined  remains  of  this  great  fresco,  now  removed  to  the  picture-gallery 
of  the  Hospital  of  Santa  Maria  Nuova,  offer  one  of  the  noblest  and  most  im- 
pressive examples  of  monumental  composition,  in  all  respects,  as  M.  Miintz 
has  said,  "a  worthy  prelude  to  the  'Disputa'  of  Raphael." 

When  the  upper  part  of  the  painting  was  completed,  Bartolommeo,  who  had 
planned  and  drawn  in  the  whole  composition,  left  the  remainder  of  the  work 
to  his  friend  Albertinelli;  and  in  the  month  of  July  of  that  year,  1500,  took 
upon  himself  the  vows  of  a  novice  in  the  Dominican  convent  at  Prato.  He 
was  at  this  time  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  already  a  painter  of  reputation, 
"much  beloved  in  Florence,"  writes  Vasari,  "not  only  for  his  talents,  but 
for  his  many  excellent  qualities;  devoted  to  labor,  of  a  quiet  mind,  upright 
by  nature,  and  duly  impressed  with  the  fear  of  God."  In  taking  this  step  no 
worldly  regrets  seem  to  have  assailed  Bartolommeo's  spirit.  Fame  he  relin- 
quished without  a  pang,  for  to  consecrate  his  life  to  God,  and  to  observe  the 
rules  of  his  Order  with  the  same  scrupulous  care  with  which  he  had  always 
fulfilled  every  duty  of  his  life,  had  now  become  the  sole  end  of  his  aspiration. 
In  his  zeal  for  his  new  duties,  however,  he  was  not  unmindful  of  his 
brother  Piero,  to  whom  he  ceded  all  his  rights  of  property,  and  whose  tute- 
lage he  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  young  man's  nearest  maternal  relatives — 
a  care  that  was  afterwards  undertaken  by  his  old  friend  Albertinelli. 

During  the  four  years  that  followed  his  entrance  upon  monastic  life,  Fra 
Bartolommeo,  as  he  was  now  called,  entirely  abandoned  painting,  and  it 
was  only  at  the  urgent  entreaties  of  his  friend  Santi  Pagnini,  prior  of  the 
Convent  of  San  Marco,  in  Florence,  where,  his  novitiate  being  ended,  he 
now  resided,  that  he  at  length  consented  to  resume  his  brush.  Had  not  Fra 
Angelico  of  blessed  memory  been  an  inmate  of  this  same  convent  many  years 
before,  and  had  not  its  cloisters  always  encouraged  art  in  its  different 
branches?  Even  Savonarola  himself  had  exhorted  all  Dominican  friars  who 
had  no  gift  for  preaching  or  for  theology  to  study  painting  and  architecture; 
and  already  there  were  many  brothers  within  the  walls  of  San  Marco  who 
were  not  only  skilled  in  the  delicate  art  of  the  miniaturist,  but  distinguished 
in  the  broader  fields  of  art  as  well.  Surely  the  talent  that  God  had  intrusted 
to  Fra  Bartolommeo  should  not  be  allowed  to  lie  hidden.  So  argued  the  wise 
and  learned  prior,  and  Fra  Bartolommeo  yielded,  resolving  at  the  same  time 
that  thenceforth  his  art  should  be  devoted  to  the  glory  and  service  of  God. 
The  first  painting  of  importance  that  he  undertook  after  this  was  an  altar- 
piece  for  a  chapel  in  the  Church  of  the  Badia  in  Florence,  representing  'The 
Vision  of  St.  Bernard.'  This  picture,  much  injured  and  repainted,  is  now  in 
the  Academy  of  Florence.  It  was  followed  by  works  executed  for  his  own 
convent  and  for  other  religious  bodies  and  churches;  for  once  having  taken 
up  his  brush,  there  was  no  dearth  of  commissions  to  keep  it  occupied.  Before 
long,  too,  Fra  Bartolommeo  was  appointed  director  of  the  studio  of  the 
Convent  of  San  Marco.     Whatever  profits  might  accrue  from  his  labors, 

[25] 


26  MASTERS     IN     ART 

how  ever,  were  appropriated  by  his  Order,  which  undertook  the  superintend- 
ence of  his  business  affairs,  allowing  him  merely  enough  money  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  the  materials  necessary  for  his  work,  and  granting  him,  as 
his  only  indulgence,  exemption  from  service  in  the  choir. 

It  was  towards  the  close  of  the  year  1504,  the  same  year  in  which  Fra 
Bartolommeo  resumed  his  painting,  that  Raphael,  then  twenty-one  years  of 
age,  visited  Florence,  and,  deeply  impressed  by  Fra  Bartolommeo's  fresco 
of  the  'Last  Judgment,'  was  eager  to  meet  and  know  its  painter.  The  ac- 
quaintance that  was  then  begun  between  the  two  artists  ripened  into  friend- 
ship when  Raphael  returned  to  Florence  in  1506,  after  a  sojourn  in  Perugia, 
where  he  was  engaged  in  painting  his  fresco  in  the  Chapel  of  San  Severo  in 
that  city,  in  which,  as  well  as  in  others  of  his  works  executed  at  this  period, 
Fra  Bartolommeo's  influence  is  plainly  visible.  If,  however,  Raphael  learned 
from  his  friend  a  greater  symmetry  and  balance  in  the  art  of  composition, 
and  from  the  study  of  his  works  became  more  skilled  in  the  management 
of  color  and  in  the  disposition  of  the  draperies,  Fra  Bartolommeo  on  his  part 
profited  no  less  by  the  younger  painter's  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  perspective, 
and  even  acquired  from  him  something  of  his  seductive  grace  and  indefinable 
charm. 

Another  influence,  however,  quite  as  perceptible  in  Fra  Bartolommeo's 
paintings,  is  that  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  and  many  of  the  works  produced 
by  him  at  this  period  bear  witness  to  his  study  of  Da  Vinci's  methods  of 
modeling  and  of  chiaroscuro.  Unfortunately,  the  use  of  printer's  ink  and 
bone-black,  with  which  in  his  zeal  to  imitate  the  style  of  that  painter  he  dark- 
ened his  shadows,  has  caused  such  serious  injury  to  his  pictures  that  much 
of  the  beauty  of  their  coloring  has  been  lost. 

Fra  Bartolommeo,  who  devoted  special  attention  to  the  construction  of 
the  human  form,  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  to  make  use  of  a  jointed  lav- 
figure  on  which  he  could  arrange  the  draperies  that  he  painted  with  such 
skill  and  thus  study  their  folds  more  accurately.  The  wooden  figure  which 
he  used  is  still  preserved  in  the  Academy  at  Florence. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  1  5  08,  the  year  in  which  Raphael,  in  obedience  to  the 
summons  of  the  pope,  left  Florence  for  Rome,  Fra  Bartolommeo  accompanied 
the  syndic  of  his  convent  on  a  journey  to.  Venice.  Giorgione  was  then  at  the 
height  of  his  fame,  Titian  had  already  risen  to  the  foremost  ranks  in  that  bril- 
liant Venetian  school  of  which  he  was  soon  to  be  the  acknowledged  chief, 
while  Sebastiano  del  Piombo  and  a  host  of  others  were  covering  their  can- 
vases with  glowing  colors  bewildering  to  the  eyes  of  one  accustomed  to  the 
more  severe  and  sober  qualities  of  Florentine  art.  And  from  this  time  on,  in 
addition  to  the  influence  of  Raphael  and  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci, a  third  influence 
becomes  apparent  in  the  work  of  Fra  Bartolommeo — that  of  the  Venetian 
painters,  the  brilliancy  of  whose  tones  so  strongly  appealed  to  his  color-sense 
that  in  all  his  subsequent  pictures  we  see  the  effects  of  this  visit  to  Ven- 
ice, and  in  none  perhaps  more  markedly  than  in  the  great  altar-piece  'St. 
Catherine  and  Mary  Magdalene  in  Adoration,'  painted  soon  after  his  return 
to  Florence,  and  now  in  the  Lucca  Gallery  (see  plate  n). 

[26] 


FRA     BARTOLOMMEO  27 

Once  more  in  his  quiet  monastery  of  San  Marco,  Fra  Bartolommeo  ap- 
plied himself  more  assiduously  than  ever  to  his  art.  His  popularity  as  a  painter 
had  increased,  and  he  found  himself  unable  to  carry  out  his  numerous  com- 
missions without  assistance.  He  therefore  obtained  permission,  by  special  dis- 
pensation, to  take  his  old  friend  Albertinelli  again  into  partnership.  This 
arrangement  continued  for  some  three  years,  during  which  time  many  fine 
works  were  produced  conjointly  by  the  two  artists,  all  such  paintings  being 
marked  with  the  monogram  of  the  studio  of  San  Marco — a  cross  between 
two  rings — to  distinguish  them  from  those  executed  by  each  painter  alone. 

In  1510  the  Signory  of  Florence  commissioned  Fra  Bartolommeo  to  paint 
an  altar-piece  for  the  Council  Hall  of  their  city — a  commission  that  had  been 
given  twelve  years  before  to  Filippino  Lippi,  but  left  unfulfilled  by  that  painter 
at  his  death.  The  subject  assigned  was  the  enthroned  Madonna  surrounded 
by  the  patron  saints  of  Florence;  and  Fra  Bartolommeo,  conscious  of  the 
honor  shown  him,  at  once  set  to  work  upon  his  task  with  enthusiasm.  For 
some  unknown  reason,  however,  the  picture,  like  Michelangelo's  and  Leo- 
nardo da  Vinci's  celebrated  compositions  executed  a  few  years  before  and 
destined  for  the  same  hall,  was  never  completed,  and  the  fine  underpainting 
in  brown  monochrome,  now  in  the  Uffizi  Gallerv,  Florence,  is  all  we  have 
of  this  great  example  of  the  painter's  science  and  skill  in  the  art  of  mon- 
umental composition. 

Four  years  after  this  Fra  Bartolommeo,  who  had  been  eager  to  see  the 
famous  works  upon  which  Michelangelo  and  Raphael  were  then  engaged  in 
Rome,  asked  and  obtained  permission  from  the  prior  of  his  convent  to  visit 
that  city,  where  he  spent  several  weeks,  a  welcome  guest  at  the  Dominican 
monastery  of  San  Silvestro.  The  profound  impression  produced  upon  his 
mind  by  the  sight  of  the  prophets  of  Michelangelo  in  the  Sistine  Chapel  is 
evidenced  in  his  colossal  figures  of  St.  Mark,  now  in  the  Pitti  Palace,  Flor- 
ence, and  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  in  the  Quirinal  Palace,  Rome. 

Fra  Bartolommeo's  stay  in  Rome  was  shortened  by  the  fact  that  the  cli- 
mate affected  his  health;  he  returned  to  Florence  seriously  ill  with  malarial 
fever,  and  was  at  once  sent  by  the  prior  of  San  Marco  to  the  hospital  belong- 
ing to  the  Dominican  monks  at  Pian  di  Mugnone,  in  the  hope  that  he  would 
soon  regain  his  strength. 

During  the  three  remaining  years  of  Fra  Bartolommeo's  life,  notwithstand- 
ing the  frequent  recurrence  of  attacks  of  fever,  his  industry  never  flagged. 
Among  the  works  painted  at  this  period  were  his  great  canvas  of 'The  Ma- 
donna della  Misericordia,'  now  in  the  Lucca  Gallery;  a  figure  of  St.  Sebas- 
tian, now  in  the  possession  of  M.  Alaffre  at  Pezenas,  France,  which,  ac- 
cording to  Vasari,  he  is  said  to  have  painted  in  refutation  of  the  charge 
that  he  was  unable  to  paint  the  nude;  'The  Presentation  in  the  Temple,'  in 
Vienna;  a  portrait  of  Savonarola  as  St.  Peter  Martyr,  now  in  the  Florentine 
Academy;  and  last  of  all,  his  beautiful  altar-piece  of 'The  Deposition  from 
the  Cross,'  in  the  Pitti  Palace,  Florence. 

His  labors  proved  beyond  his  strength,  however,  and  again  he  was  com- 
pelled to  seek  rest  at  Pian  di  Mugnone.    In  1516,  the  year  before  he  died, 

[27] 


28  MASTERS     IN     ART 

he  received  an  urgent  invitation  from  the  French  king,  Francis  I.,  to  visit 
his  court;  but  lack  of  strength,  as  well  as  pressure  of  work  at  home,  caused 
the  painter  to  hesitate  to  accept  the  invitation,  which  was  accordingly  left 
open  for  his  consideration.  But  Fra  Bartolommeo  never  left  his  native  Italy. 
Vasari  tells  us  that  having  labored  perpetually  beneath  a  window  through 
which  the  rays  of  the  sun  constantly  poured  on  his  back,  one  side  of  his  body 
became  paralyzed.  He  was,  therefore,  advised  by  his  physician  to  go  to  the 
baths  of  San  Filippo  to  try  the  effect  of  those  healing  waters;  but  early 
in  the  autumn  he  returned  to  Florence  not  much  better  than  when  he  went 
away;  and  one  day,  having  eaten  plentifully  of  figs,  of  which  he  was  exceed- 
ingly fond,  he  was  attacked  by  an  access  of  fever,  and  after  a  brief  illness 
died,  on  October  6,  1517,  at  the  age  of  forty-two.  Fra  Bartolommeo  was 
mourned  by  all  who  knew  him,  and  especially  by  the  monks  of  his  Order, 
by  whom  he  was  buried  in  the  church  of  the  Convent  of  San  Marco,  which 
he  had  honored  in  his  life  both  as  a  humble  and  faithful  member  and  as  a 
great  and  illustrious  painter.  —  based  on  the  life  of  fra  bartolommeo  by 

GUSTAVE  GRUVER 


Cfje  &rt  of  jfra  Bartolommeo 

HERMANN     LUC KE  'FRA    BARTOLOMMEO' 

THE  range  of  Fra  Bartolommeo's  art  was  by  no  means  wide.  He  never 
penetrated  into  that  extended  domain  of  history  and  mythology  that  had 
been  rediscovered  by  the  spirit  of  the  Renaissance  and  in  which  Raphael 
reigned  supreme;  he  never  attempted  the  representation  of  great  epic  themes 
in  a  series  of  monumental  mural  paintings,  nor  did  he  aspire  to  portray  sub- 
jects of  a  strictly  dramatic  character.  It  may  be  said,  indeed,  that  of  the  re- 
ligious works  that  he  painted,  either  in  fresco  or  on  panel,  those  best  suited 
to  his  genius  were  such  subjects  as  afforded  him  an  opportunity  of  arranging 
in  calm  and  dignified  situations  figures  that  were  marked  by  a  stately  beauty 
and  sobriety.  Even  the  expression  of  any  intense  passion  or  profound  pathos 
acquired  at  his  hands  a  certain  grave  and  sober  character.  The  grandeur  of 
form  and  attitude  of  each  individual  figure  was,  moreover,  in  perfect  harmony 
with  the  grandeur  and  serenity  of  the  composition;  and  even  as  he  loved  to 
place  his  figures  in  settings  of  stately  architecture,  so  in  the  general  dispo- 
sition and  grouping  of  the  figures  themselves  a  rhythm  and  harmony  pre- 
vailed that  was,  so  to  speak,  architectural  in  its  nature.  In  the  progress  of 
his  art  we  see  that  the  structure  of  the  picture  and  disposition  of  the  groups 
assume  ever  more  skilfully  balanced  and  more  spacious  proportions.  There 
is  greater  breadth  and  grandeur  in  the  forms,  more  prominence  is  given  to 
the  masses  of  light  and  shade.  Vasari,  the  first  to  observe  this  tendency  in 
the  development  of  art,  speaks  of  it  as  "the  modern  manner,"  in  contradis- 
tinction to  the  conventional  style  of  fifteenth-century  painting. 

[28] 


FRA     BARTOLOMMEO  29 

Leonardo  da  Vinci  and  Fra  Bartolommeo  were  the  first  painters  of  the 
Italian  Renaissance  to  realize  the  impressive  artistic  effect  produced  by  per- 
fect unison  in  the  treatment  of  line  and  form,  and  thereby  a  new  epoch  was 
created  in  art.    In  the  beginning,  the  feeling  of  the  importance  of  space  com- 
position had  been  manifested  somewhat  timidly  in  Giotto's  works;  later,  it 
was  more  clearly  marked  in  the  strong  and  earnest  simplicity  of  Masaccio's; 
but  in  those  of  the  later  fifteenth-century  painters,  whose  chief  aims  and  am- 
bitions were  directed  towards  the  attainment  of  wholly  different  ends,  it  had 
become  more  and  more  of  secondary  importance,  and  had  often  been  com- 
pletely ignored.    The  full  mastery  of  unison  in  composition  is  not  indeed 
met  with  in  the  work  of  any  Italian  painter  before  Leonardo  and  Fra  Barto- 
lommeo.   The  feeling  for  space  as  shown  in  their  pictures,  and  the  grandeur 
of  the  general  effect  of  their  compositions,  are  evidences  of  the  highest  perfec- 
tion of  the  Renaissance.   This  is  apparent  in  its  whole  significance  when  their 
works  are  contrasted  with  those  of  contemporary  German  painters,  whose 
compositions,  with  all  their  otherwise  admirable  qualities,  almost  invariably 
evince  a  certain  embarrassment  and  awkwardness,  and  who,  in  their  extreme 
fondness  for  detail  and  their  absorption  in  the  portrayal  of  the  characteristics 
of  each  individual  figure,  seldom  rise  to  a  free  and  harmonious  disposition 
of  the  whole.    A  clear  understanding  of  the  combined  effect  of  forms,  lines, 
and  masses;  a  feeling  for  the  beauty  of  proportions  in  space,  which  to  the 
artist  is  what  the  rhythm  of  verse  is  to  the  poet — in  short,  the  faculty  for  com- 
position, is  manifested  by  Fra  Bartolommeo  to  such  a  marked  degree  that  it 
stands  forth  as  the  greatest  of  his  artistic  qualities.    If  it  be  further  taken  into 
consideration  that  a  certain  uniformity  pervades  the  grand  types  of  his  figures 
and  the  motives  of  their  actions,  we  shall  agree  with  that  critic  who  said  that 
Fra  Bartolommeo's  achievement  considered  as  a  whole  had  a  far  deeper 
significance  than  the  invention  and  disposition  of  any  single  example  of  his 
work.   .   .   . 

Fra  Bartolommeo's  method  of  painting  was  a  direct  outcome  of  Leonardo 
da  Vinci's  principles.  In  the  underpainting,  which  in  that  method  required 
the  utmost  care,  the  figures  were  as  a  rule  first  accurately  modeled  in  brown, 
the  general  local  tone  was  then  applied  with  a  semi-transparency,  the  gra- 
dations of  the  half-tones  were  refined  by  delicate  blues,  and  finally  the  whole 
was  brought  into  harmony.  Leonardo,  however,  did  not  carry  the  color- 
scheme  to  such  a  state  of  perfection  as  to  produce  its  fullest  artistic  effect. 
The  expression  of  form  was  always  the  principal  feature  with  him,  whereas 
with  Fra  Bartolommeo  color  was  so  intimately  connected  with  the  complete 
development  of  his  style  of  composition  that  he  may  be  called  a  colorist  in  the 
fullest  acceptation  of  the  term,  and  as  such  he  occupies  a  place  in  the  his- 
tory of  Florentine  painting  similar  to  that  held  later  by  Andrea  del  Sarto.  .  .  . 
There  are  artists  who  perhaps  in  some  one  work  achieve  the  highest  ex- 
cellence, who  in  the  strength  and  boldness  of  a  sudden  inspiration  attain  a 
greatness  which  far  surpasses  their  average  powers ;  but  with  Fra  Bartolommeo 
the  exact  opposite  appears  to  be  the  case.  It  is  true  that  the  inexhaustible 
wealth  of  imagination,  the  fullness  of  artistic  conception  which  is  displayed  so 

[29] 


30  MASTERS     IN     ART 

lavishly  and  in  such  ever-fresh  and  varying  forms  in  the  creations  of  men  of 
the  greatest  genius,  had  been  denied  him,  and  that  in  some  of  his  works  we 
feel  that  his  creative  faculty  is  inadequate  to  invest  with  life  the  grand  forms 
that  he  conceived;  but,  nevertheless,  wherever  the  soul  of  the  artist  succeeds 
in  identifying  itself  with  his  subject,  there  he  achieves  a  beauty  of  the  highest 
order.  The  grave  and  magistral  character  of  the  composition,  the  dignitv  of 
the  figures  and  grandeur  of  their  draperies,  the  rhythmical  flow  of  the  lines 
and  deep  harmonies  of  the  color,  produce  a  unison  of  effect  such  as  is  almost 
unparalleled  in  the  history  of  painting;  and  if  in  these  qualities  Fra  Barto- 
lommeo  shows  himself  at  the  very  summit  of  the  Renaissance,  his  inward 
svmpathy  with  the  spirit  of  that  great  epoch  is  revealed  in  yet  another  re- 
spect— in  the  ethical  significance  of  those  majestic  male  figures  which  in  the 
full  consciousness  of  their  own  calm  strength  are  ideal  types  of  the  free,  un- 
fettered character  of  the  Renaissance,  wholly  released  at  last  from  the  tram- 
mels and  limitations  of  medievalism.  In  this  ethical  side  of  his  artistic  con- 
ception Fra  Bartolommeo  is  raised  far  above  the  traditional  mode  of  thought 
peculiar  to  those  of  his  religious  profession.  The  last  of  the  cloistral  paint- 
ers, the  ardent  admirer  of  Savonarola,  he  was  yet  a  true  child  of  the  Renais- 
sance; and  in  the  grand  and  characteristic  figures  that  he  portrayed  we  are 
conscious  of  the  breath  of  that  mighty  spirit  which  broke  the  spell  of  the 
monastic  view  of  life  and  burst  the  last  fetters  of  the  middle  ages.  —  from 

THE  GERMAN 

GUSTAVE    GRUYER  'FRA     BARTOLOMMEO     ET    ALBERTINELLI" 

ALTHOUGH  not  entitled  to  a  position  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  Italian 
J~\.  painters,  Fra  Bartolommeo  occupies  an  eminent  place  in  the  history  of 
art.  Born  at  a  period  immediately  preceding  its  most  complete  and  perfect 
development,  he  evinced  certain  new  qualities  which  at  once  aroused  the  ad- 
miration of  his  contemporaries.  Never  before  had  draperies  been  treated  with 
so  much  breadth  and  in  so  simple  and  natural  a  manner.  Never  before  had 
an  artist  invested  his  figures  with  so  serene  a  majesty  or  arranged  his  com- 
positions with  such  absolute  harmony.  Never,  indeed,  had  so  profound  a 
science  been  combined  with  a  simplicity  so  seductive. 

Affected  as  he  was  in  turn  by  the  chiaroscuro  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  bv 
the  incomparable  grace  of  Raphael,  and  by  the  warmth  of  color  of  the  Vene- 
tian painters,  PVa  Bartolommeo  added  to  the  style  peculiar  to  himself  some- 
thing of  the  special  qualities  of  each  of  these  different  influences;  and  by 
combining  the  resources  of  a  genius  of  the  second  order  with  the  inspira- 
tions of  a  pure  and  lofty  soul  he  succeeded  in  winning  a  place  for  himself 
beside  the  greatest  painters  of  his  century.  Unfortunately,  after  his  journey 
to  Rome,  the  influence  of  Michelangelo  is  only  too  evident  in  his  work,  as 
is  shown  in  the  colossal  si/.e  of  his  figures.  Eventually,  however,  he  freed 
himself  from  this  affectation. 

As  a  rule,  Fra  Bartolommeo  refrained  from  expressing  strong  emotions, 
preferring  to  portray  the  tender  feeling  of  souls  transported  by  divine  ecstasy. 

[301 


FRA     BARTOLOMMEO  31 

As  Paul  Mantz  has  said,  "A  serious  and  thoughtful  beauty  shines  from  his 
figures,  which  seem  at  times  to  be  glorified  by  a  ray  fallen  from  the  golden 
sky  of  Venice." 

The  unfinished  picture  of 'The  Madonna  Surrounded  by  Saints'  in  the 
Uffizi  Gallery,  Florence,  enables  us  to  judge  to  some  extent  of  Fra  Bartolom- 
meo's  processes  of  working.  The  figures  were  first  drawn  nude  from  living 
models.  He  then  arranged  his  draperies,  making  use  of  a  lay-figure  to  aid  him. 
The  composition  was  prepared  entirely  with  bister,  all  the  parts  were  mod- 
eled, the  lights  and  shades  carefully  defined,  and,  indeed,  the  whole  work 
almost  completed  in  monochrome.  Finally,  he  would  go  over  it  all  with  thin 
colors,  after  which  there  remained  only  the  glazing,  which  imparted  trans- 
parency and  brilliancy  to  the  work.  —  from  the  French 

WILHELM     LUBKE  'HISTORY    OF    ART* 

FRA  BARTOLOMMEO'S  peculiar  sphere  is  devotional  painting;  and 
here  he  stands  the  equal  of  the  greatest  and  noblest  masters.  His  figures 
are  full  of  deep  sensibility,  and  at  the  same  time  are  free  in  their  action,  noblv 
draped,  and  of  a  ripe  beauty.  But  what,  above  all,  contributes  to  the  im- 
pressiveness  of  his  pictures  is  the  magnificent  grouping,  the  well-balanced 
composition  of  the  whole — an  effect  which,  nevertheless,  is  produced  with- 
out any  sacrifice  of  freedom.  In  his  coloring  we  see  still  further  developed 
the  same  delicate  gradation  which  Leonardo  da  Vinci  exhibited,  and  by  which 
he  laid  the  foundation  of  the  art  of  aerial  perspective;  and  in  his  best  works 
he  combines  a  rare  strength  and  depth  with  a  bright  freshness  of  coloring. 

JOHN    ADDINGTON    SYMONDS  'RENAISSANCE    IN    ITALY' 

FRA  BARTOLOMMEO  forms  at  Florence  the  connecting  link  between 
the  artists  of  the  earlier  Renaissance  and  the  golden  age.  By  chronolog- 
ical reckoning  he  is  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  later  than  Leonardo  da 
Vinci,  and  is  the  exact  contemporary  of  Michelangelo.  As  an  artist,  he  has 
thoroughly  outgrown  the  fifteenth-century  style,  and  falls  short  by  only  a 
little  of  the  greatest.  In  assigning  him  a  place  among  the  predecessors  and 
precursors  of  the  full  Renaissance,  I  am  therefore  influenced  rather  by  the 
range  of  subjects  he  selected,  and  by  the  character  of  his  genius,  than  by  cal- 
culations of  time  or  estimate  of  ability.   .   .   . 

The  great  contributions  made  by  Fra  Bartolommeo  to  the  art  of  Italy  were 
in  the  double  region  of  composition  and  coloring.  In  his  justly  celebrated 
fresco  of  Santa  Maria  Nuova  at  Florence — a  'Last  Judgment'  with  a  Christ 
enthroned  amid  a  choir  of  saints — he  exhibited  for  the  first  time  a  thoroughly 
scientific  scheme  of  grouping  based  on  geometrical  principles.  Each  part  is 
perfectly  balanced  in  itself,  and  yet  is  necessary  to  the  structure  of  the  whole. 
The  complex  framework  may  be  subdivided  into  numerous  sections  no  less 
harmoniously  ordered  than  is  the  total  scheme  to  which  they  are  subordi- 
nated.   Simple  figures — the  pyramid  and  the  triangle,  upright,  inverted,  and 

[31] 


32  MASTERS     IN     ART 

interwoven  like  the  rhymes  in  a  sonnet  —  form  the  basis  of  the  composition. 
This  system  was  adhered  to  by  him  in  all  his  subsequent  works. 

As  a  colorist,  Fra  Bartolommeo  was  equal  to  the  best  of  his  contempora- 
ries, and  superior  to  any  of  his  rivals  in  the  school  of  Florence,  hew  paint- 
ers of  any  age  have  combined  harmony  of  tone  so  perfectly  with  brilliance 
and  richness.  It  is  a  real  joy  to  contemplate  the  pure  and  splendid  folds  of 
the  white  drapery  he  loved  to  place  in  the  foreground  of  his  altar-pieces. 
Solidity  and  sincerity  distinguish  his  work  in  every  detail,  while  his  feeling  is 
remarkable  for  elevation  and  sobriety.  All  that  he  lacks  is  the  boldness  of 
imagination,  the  depth  of  passion,  and  the  power  of  thought  that  are  indis- 
pensable to  genius  of  the  highest  order.  Gifted  with  a  sympathetic  and  a 
pliant  rather  than  a  creative  and  self-sustained  nature,  he  was  sensitive  to 
every  influence.  Therefore  we  find  him  learning  much  in  his  youth  from 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  deriving  a  fresh  impulse  from  Raphael,  and  endeavoring 
in  his  later  life,  after  a  visit  to  Rome  in  15  14,  to  "heighten  his  style,"  as  the 
phrase  went,  by  emulating  Michelangelo;  but  his  attempt  to  tread  Michelan- 
gelo's path  was  a  failure.  What  Fra  Bartolommeo  sought  to  gain  in  majesty 
he  lost  in  charm.  His  was  essentiallv  a  pure  and  gracious  manner,  upon  which 
sublimitv  could  not  be  grafted.  The  gentle  soul  who  dropped  his  weapon 
when  the  Convent  of  San  Marco  was  besieged,  and  who  vowed  if  Heaven 
preserved  him  in  the  tumult  to  become  a  monk,  had  none  of  Michelangelo's 
terribilita.  Without  possessing  some  share  of  that  spirit,  it  was  vain  to  ag- 
grandize the  forms  and  mass  the  raiment  of  his  prophets  in  imitation  of  those 
of  the  Sistine.  Nature  made  Fra  Bartolommeo  the  painter  of  adoration.  The 
sublimities  of  tragic  passion  lay  beyond  his  scope. 

EUGENE     MUNTZ  'HISTOIRE     DE     L'ART    PENDANT     LA     RENAISSANCE" 

FRA  BARTOLOMMEO'S  fame  rests  largely  upon  the  fact  that  he  es- 
tablished certain  laws  of  composition.  His  aim  was  to  produce  an  effect 
by  harmony  of  lines  just  as  earlier  artists  had  sought  to  do  by  exact  delin- 
eation of  details.  While  giving  importance  to  the  landscape  introduced  into 
his  pictures,  he  nevertheless  founded  his  compositions  upon  architectural 
motives  which  gave  them  a  certain  balance  and  stability.  Sometimes  pilas- 
ters or  niches  serve  as  settings  for  the  scenes;  sometimes  the  backgrounds 
are  walls  adorned  with  moldings.  The  ornamentations  of  these  fragments 
of  architecture  are  invariably  of  an  extreme  sobriety.  The  skilfully  arranged 
steps  of  his  thrones  are  used  to  display  still  further  the  figures  in  his  compo- 
sition by  placing  them  in  different  tiers.  The  purelv  decorative  motive  of 
the  baldachin,  or  canopy,  upheld  bv  angels  over  the  head  of  the  Virgin  was 
a  favorite  one  with  both  Fra  Bartolommeo  and  Raphael — as,  for  example, 
in  Raphael's  'Madonna  of  the  Baldachin'  in  the  Pitti  Palace,  Florence,  and 
Fra  Bartolommeo's  representations  of  the  'Marriage  of  St.  Catherine'  both 
there  and  in  the  Louvre. 

Figures  of  angels  more  supple  and  graceful  than  any  painted  before  his  time 
served  to  enliven  Fra  Bartolommeo's  pictures  and  to  unite  the  different  parts 

[32] 


FRA     BARTOLOMMEO  33 

of  the  composition.  Sometimes  he  made  use  of  them  to  support  the  figure 
of  the  Almighty  or  of  the  Virgin  appearing  among  clouds.  Sometimes  he 
formed  a  sort  of  heavenly  retinue  with  them,  and,  again,  he  introduced  them 
merely  to  fill  in  the  empty  spaces  between  the  principal  actors  of  the  scene. 

It  should  be  especially  noted  that,  in  addition  to  this  science  in  the  art  of 
grouping,  Fra  Bartolommeo  possessed  a  rare  vivifying  power.  In  the  por- 
trayal of  subjects  in  which  his  predecessors,  almost  without  exception,  and 
in  more  or  less  labored  fashion,  placed  stiff,  impassive  figures  alongside  each 
other,  he  composed  groups  that  were  both  easy  and  life-like,  arranging  them 
as  if  the  figures  were  wax  in  his  hands;  indeed,  if  it  were  not  that  his  com- 
positions were  the  outcome  of  profound  study  and  earnest  conviction,  I  should 
be  tempted  to  say,  if  I  might  so  express  it,  that  occasionally  he  manipulated 
his  figures  almost  too  freely.   .   .   . 

Idyllic  themes — the  representation  of  the  happy  human  Virgins  of  field 
and  meadow — were  less  suited  to  his  serious  nature  than  to  that  of  his  friend 
Raphael.  Saddened  as  he  had  been  in  early  life  by  the  tragic  death  of  Savo- 
narola, his  beloved  master,  and  impregnated,  moreover,  by  the  austere  views 
of  the  monastic  order  to  which  he  belonged,  he  usually  chose  to  celebrate 
the  Madonna,  not  so  much  as  the  loving  and  tender  mother,  as  the  Virgin 
in  Glory  and  the  Queen  of  Heaven.  —  from  the  French 


E.H.AND    E.  W.  BLASHFIELD    AND    A.A.HOPKINS,    EDITORS  'VASARI'S    LIVES' 

MORE  than  any  other  painter  Fra  Bartolommeo  may  be  called  the  one 
who  drew  the  line  deeply  between  the  first  and  second  Renaissance,  be- 
tween the  age  of  upgrowth  and  the  time  of  perfect  flowering.  Even  Leo- 
nardo and  Raphael  are  transitional  painters  when  compared  with  him,  for 
Raphael  begins  his  early  canvases  in  Urbino  and  Perugia,  and  Leonardo's 
'Virgin  of  the  Rocks'  still  recalls  the  springtime  of  Italian  art.  With  both 
of  these  great  painters  the  transition  is  gradual  and  natural,  but  Fra  Barto- 
lommeo seems  deliberately  to  throw  aside  his  earlier  and  more  delicate  man- 
ner in  order  to  address  himself  wholly  to  the  search  after  the  monumental. 
Fra  Bartolommeo  in  his  second  manner  belongs  entirely  to  the  new  order  of 
things.  He  announces  the  culmination,  though  he  does  not  attain  the  sum- 
mit which  the  greater  Raphael  and  Michelangelo  and  Correggio  reached.  It 
is  not  inappropriate  that  this  precursor  should  have  worn  the  Dominican 
hood,  for  a  great  change  was  coming  over  Italy,  and  the  first  to  prophesy  it 
was  the  Dominican,  Fra  Bartolommeo's  master,  Savonarola.  Lorenzo  the 
Magnificent  was  dead,  and  with  him  there  had  passed  away  a  generation  of  art- 
ists whose  works  were  cheerful  with  carefully  studied  details  of  daily  life,  gav 
with  episodes  and  contemporaneous  costume;  in  their  place  were  to  come 
the  relatively  abstract  creations  of  Raphael  and  Michelangelo.  Savonarola 
strove  to  raise  up  a  regenerate  Italy,  and  his  spirit,  which  thirty  years  after 
his  death  inspired  the  defence  of  Florence  of  1529,  inspired,  too,  the  artists 
who  heard  his  words,  Michelangelo,  Lorenzo  di  Credi,  Botticelli,  and,  above 
all,  Fra  Bartolommeo.    Undoubtedly  the  cloistral  life  encouraged  this  love 

[33] 


34  MASTERS     IN    ART 

of  abstraction  in  art;  undoubtedly,  too,  the  circumscribed  life  of  the  convent 
is  answerable  for  some  of  Bartolommeo's  technical  weaknesses;  but  the  mem- 
ory of  Savonarola  lasted  throughout  his  lite,  and  the  precepts  of  Savonarola 
may  be  accounted  as  a  direct  factor  in  the  evolution  of  his  art  in  prompting 
his  rejection  of  the  episodical  and  accessorv,  and  in  inspiring  his  self-concen- 
tration upon  what  seemed  to  him  the  highest  qualities — austeritv,  harmony, 
elevation. 

Technically,  Fra  Bartolommeo  was  a  better  colorist  than  most  Tuscans, 
though,  like  Leonardo,  he  injured  his  work  greatly  by  the  use  of  black  shad- 
ows. As  draftsman  he  was  sometimes  admirable,  always  dignified,  often  in- 
different as  to  detail,  sometimes  careless  as  to  proportions  and  types,  being 
peculiarly  given  to  a  type  of  profile  which  is  not  only  ugly  but  weak.  In  the 
beginning  much  of  his  work  is  delicate,  even  dainty,  but  a  little  later  we  find 
him  sacrificing  nearly  all  of  the  decorative  paraphernalia  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, and,  like  Signorelli,  he  is  satisfied  with  man  alone;  but  unlike  Signo- 
relli,  who  depended  upon  movement  as  expressed  by  muscular  structure,  he 
always  drapes  his  figures  heavily,  and  counts  upon  a  rhythmical  arrangement 
of  the  masses.  This  science  of  rhythmical  composition  was  the  glorv  of  Fra 
Bartolommeo;  the  impulse  which  he  communicated,  the  originality  and 
power  which  he  brought  to  this  science,  are  what  give  him  his  high  place  in 
the  history  of  Italian  art.  The  realism  and  decorative  details  of  the  prim- 
itives are  set  aside  by  him  in  favor  of  abstraction  in  the  types,  simplicity  in 
detail,  and  the  maximum  of  compositional  effect  produced  by  the  minimum 
of  figures.  With  him  commence  the  academic  but  grand  compositions  which 
may  almost  be  inscribed  in  a  geometrical  figure  (such,  for  instance,  as  the 
pyramid).  He  precedes  and  inspires  Raphael,  showing  him  the  way  to  the 
arrangement  of  his  monumental  fresco  at  San  Severo  of  Perugia,  and  thence 
to  his  'Disputa'  in  the  Vatican,  through  the  medium  of  the  distribution  of 
the  masses  in  his  own  fresco  of  the  'Last  Judgment.'  By  right  of  this  new 
departure,  this  grand  sentiment  in  art,  Bartolommeo  is  a  great  master;  but 
his  pictures  are  the  result  of  thought  rather  than  of  observation:  together 
with  this  magnificent  ordering  of  the  lines  and  masses  comes  a  careless- 
ness in  the  types,  there  is  little  characterization,  the  drawing  is  not  close 
or  studied,  and  even  the  proportions  are  sometimes  grossly  violated.  His 
faces  are  rarely  individual,  and  he  apparently  relied  too  much  upon  the  use 
of  the  lay-figure  (which  he  is  said  to  have  invented);  these  faults  offend  the 
artist,  and  especially  the  student,  who  instinctively  resents  the  careless  gen- 
eralizing of  what  seem  to  him  supremely  important,  the  human  face  and 
figure;  but  the  student  of  art  must  not  forget  that  Bartolommeo's  beauty  is 
a  beauty  of  line  and  sweep  where  all  the  figures  are  interdependent  and  nec- 
essary to  each  other;  his  grouping  is  almost  architectural,  and  he  elevates 
composition  to  a  new  and  higher  plane. 


[34] 


FRA     BARTOLOMMEO  35 


Ci)e  3^orksi  of  jfra  Bartolommeo 


DESCRIPTIONS    OF    THE     PLATES 


'MADONNA    AND    CHILD    WITH    ST.    ELIZABETH    AND    ST.    JOHN'  PLATE    I 

THIS  picture,  now  in  the  collection  of  Sir  Frederick  Cook,  at  Richmond, 
near  London,  was  painted  by  Fra  Bartolommeo  the  year  before  he  died. 
It  represents  the  oft-repeated  subject  of  the  Madonna  and  Child  with  St. 
Elizabeth  and  the  little  St.  John  grouped  in  Fra  Bartolommeo's  favorite 
pyramidal  form  against  the  dark  trunk  of  a  palm-tree,  and  with  a  delicately 
rendered  landscape  background.  The  painting,  which  is  in  an  excellent  state 
of  preservation,  has  all  the  transparency  and  luminousness  that  characterize 
this  artist's  work,  the  depth  and  brilliancy  of  the  colors  being  here,  as  has 
been  said,  comparable  to  those  of  Limoges  enamel.  The  picture  is  painted 
on  wood,  and  measures  four  and  a  half  feet  high  by  four  feet  wide. 

<ST.     CATHERINE    AND    MARY    MAGDALENE    IN    ADORATION'  PLATE    II 

WHILE  in  Venice  in  1508,  Fra  Bartolommeo  was  asked  by  the  Domin- 
ican monks  of  the  Convent  of  San  Pietro  Martire,  at  Murano,  near  that 
city,  to  paint  an  altar-piece  for  their  church  of  the  value  of  from  seventy  to 
one  hundred  ducats,  and  according  to  the  contract  the  painter  was  to  receive 
twenty-five  ducats  in  advance,  with  three  additional  ones  for  the  purchase  of 
his  colors,  a  portion  of  which  sum  was  to  be  raised  by  the  sale  of  a  collection 
of  letters  from  St.  Catherine  of  Siena  in  possession  of  the  prior  of  the  con- 
vent. Immediately  after  his  return  to  Florence,  Fra  Bartolommeo  set  to  work 
upon  this  picture,  which  is  considered  by  many  to  be  his  masterpiece.  In 
the  upper  part  of  the  painting  he  has  represented  God  the  Father,  His  form 
enveloped  in  the  heavy  folds  of  a  deep  red  mantle,  seated  among  clouds  and 
surrounded  by  cherubim.  One  hand  is  raised  in  benediction  and  in  the  other 
He  holds  an  open  book  in  which  the  Greek  letters  alpha  and  omega  are  inscribed 
— symbolic  of  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  all  things.  An  angel  beneath 
holds  a  scroll  with  the  words  "divinvs  amor  extasim  facit." 

Kneeling  on  light  clouds  below  are  Mary  Magdalene,  in  rich  blue  draperv 
and  under-dress  of  crimson,  bearing  her  attribute,  a  vase  of  ointment,  in  her 
hand,  and  opposite  her  St.  Catherine  of  Siena  in  the  white  habit  of  a  Domin- 
ican nun,  her  hands  raised,  her  eyes  upturned  to  the  glory  above,  her  whole 
form  expressive  of  ecstasy  and  adoration — "a  figure,"  writes  Vasari,  "than 
which  it  is  not  possible  that  anything  better  can  be  done  in  that  manner." 
Beneath,  in  the  distance,  is  a  landscape  painted  in  soft  brownish  tones  deli- 
cately blended.  The  pale  blue  sky  is  that  of  evening,  with  yellow  tones  tinged 
with  orange  at  the  horizon.  The  whole  scene  is  impregnated  with  a  deeply 
religious  spirit  and  is  full  of  harmonious  beauty. 

When  the  picture  was  completed  Fra  Bartolommeo  notified  the  Dominican 
monks  at  Murano.  The  value  was  estimated  by  two  of  their  members,  who 
were  despatched  to  Florence  for  the  purpose  of  appraising  the  work,  at  over 

[35] 


36  MASTERS     IN     ART 

one  hundred  ducats,  but  some  misunderstanding  concerning  the  payment  of 
even  the  reduced  amount  which  the  painter  agreed  to  accept  for  his  services 
occasioned  so  much  delay  that  after  a  period  of  three  years,  during  which 
time  the  work  remained  unclaimed,  Fra  Bartolommeo  gave  it  to  Santi  Pagnini, 
the  prior  of  San  Marco.  By  him  it  was  sent  to  his  native  town  of  Lucca  and 
placed  in  the  Dominican  Church  of  San  Romano  in  that  city,  whence  it 
was  subsequently  removed  to  the  Lucca  Gallery,  where  it  now  hangs.  The 
picture  is  painted  in  oils  on  canvas,  and  measures  about  eleven  feet  high  by 
eight  feet  wide. 

'THE    MADONNA    OF    FERRY    CARONDELET'  PLATE    III 

THIS  picture,  in  the  Cathedral  of  Besancon,  France,  is  one  of  Fra  Bar- 
tolommeo's  most  important  works.  It  was  painted  for  Ferjeux,  or  Perry, 
Carondelet,  archdeacon  of  the  chapter  of  Besancon,  and  envoy  of  the  Em- 
peror Maximilian  to  the  papal  court  at  Rome,  and  was  presented  by  him  to 
the  Cathedral  of  Besancon,  where  it  still  adorns  the  chapel  dedicated  to  his 
patron  saint,  St.  Ferjeux. 

The  subject  represents  the  Madonna  and  Child  surrounded  by  saints  and 
angels,  with  the  figure  of  the  donor  kneeling  in  the  foreground.  Fra  Barto- 
lommeo has  placed  these  personages  in  a  spacious  room  adorned  with  pillars 
of  marble.  In  the  upper  part  of  the  picture  the  Madonna,  in  a  red  robe  and 
blue  mantle,  and  supported  by  cherubs,  holds  the  child  Jesus  in  her  arms.  His 
hand  is  raised  in  blessing,  and  his  face  is  turned  toward  St.  Sebastian  standing 
at  the  left,  behind  whom  is  St.  Stephen.  St.  John  the  Baptist  kneels  at  their 
feet.  On  the  other  side  of  the  picture  the  most  striking  figure  is  that  of  St. 
Bernard,  in  the  white  habit  of  his  Order.  His  arms  are  outstretched  and  his  gaze 
upturned  to  the  group  above.  Behind  him,  barely  discernible,  stands  St.  An- 
thony, and  in  front,  in  flowing  gown  of  rich  deep  red  faced  with  black,  Fra  Bar- 
tolommeo has  painted  the  donor,  Ferry  Carondelet.  His  strongly  marked  face  is 
enframed  in  smooth  dark  hair;  in  one  hand  he  holds  his  cap,  and  points  with 
the  other  to  the  Madonna  and  Child.  The  floor  is  strewn  with  roses,  and 
through  an  open  window  an  Italian  landscape  is  seen,  enlivened  by  figures 
of  bathers  outlined  against  the  dark  foliage  of  the  trees.  Although  the  painting 
has  been  injured  by  time,  which  has  rendered  the  outlines  indistinct  and 
dimmed  the  once  brilliant  colors,  the  contrasts  formed  by  the  red  of  the 
donor's  gown  and  the  yellowish  white  of  St.  Bernard's,  by  the  nude  figure  of 
St.  Sebastian  and  the  somber  colors  of  the  saints  beside  him,  and,  again,  by 
the  deep  hues  of  the  Madonna's  draperies  and  the  golden  tones  of  the  naked 
bodies  of  the  infant  Jesus  and  the  surrounding  angels,  still  produce  an  effect 
that  is  both  striking  and  harmonious. 

Considerable  controversy  has  been  raised  regarding  the  date  of  this  altar- 
piece.  M.  Castan  believes  that  it  should  be  assigned  to  the  year  1516,  and 
that  it  was  left  unfinished  by  Fra  Bartolommeo  and  completed  by  Fra  Paolino. 
M.  Gruyer  and  the  generality  of  critics,  however,  hold  that  1511-12  is  the 
period  to  which  it  belongs,  the  period  when  Fra  Bartolommeo  was  working 
in  collaboration  with  Albertinelli,  who  may  have  painted  certain  parts.    The 

[36] 


FRA     BARTOLOMMEO  37 

picture  is  undated,  and  the  signature  is  not  regarded  as  authentic.  The  paint- 
ing is  on  an  oak  panel  which  measures  eight  and  a  half  feet  high  by  seven 
and  a  half  feet  wide.  Various  studies  by  Fra  Bartolommeo  for  different  por- 
tions of  the  work  are  in  the  Museum  of  Weimar,  and  a  crayon  drawing  by 
him  for  the  figure  of  St.  Bernard  is  in  the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts,  Paris. 

'THE     HOLY    FAMILY'  PLATE    IV 

FRA  BARTOLOMMEO  painted  this  picture  about  the  year  1509,  soon 
after  the  'Madonna  between  St.  Stephen  and  St.  John  Baptist'  in  the  Ca- 
thedral of  Lucca  (plate  x),  and  at  a  time  when  the  influence  of  Leonardo 
da  Vinci  and  of  Raphael,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Venetian  painters,  were  all 
perceptible  in  his  work.  The  skilful  blending  of  the  light  and  shade  recall 
Leonardo;  the  pyramidal  form  of  the  grouping,  although  first  adopted  by 
Fra  Bartolommeo,  is  also  frequently  met  with  in  Raphael's  compositions; 
while  the  landscape  background,  with  its  bright  horizon  and  green  palm-tree, 
is  strongly  reminiscent  of  that  painter's  representations  of  this  same  subject, 
and  in  the  colors  we  see  the  effects  of  Fra  Bartolommeo's  visit  of  the  previ- 
ous year  to  Venice. 

The  picture  was  formerly  owned  by  Filippo  di  Averardo  Salviati,  a  fol- 
lower of  Savonarola,  and  friend  of  Fra  Bartolommeo,  and  for  many  years  re- 
mained in  the  possession  of  Salviati's  descendants.  Towards  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  it  was  bought  by  Earl  Cowper,  then  British  minister  at 
Florence,  and  is  now  in  the  collection  of  the  present  Earl  Cowper  at  Pan- 
shanger,  near  Hertford,  England.  It  is  painted  on  wood,  and  measures  about 
five  feet  high  by  four  feet  wide. 

'THE    MADONNA    DELLA     MISERICORDIA  '  PLATE    V 

THIS  celebrated  altar-piece,  containing  no  fewer  than  forty-one  life-sized 
figures,  was  painted  by  Yva  Bartolommeo  in  the  year  15 15,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  Dominican  monk  Fra  Sebastiano  Lambardi  de'  Montecatini,  for 
the  Church  of  San  Romano  in  Lucca.  It  has  since  been  removed  to  the  Lucca 
Gallery,  where  it  now  hangs. 

Painted  soon  after  Fra  Bartolommeo's  return  from  Rome,  when  the  effects 
of  his  study  of  the  great  frescos  by  Michelangelo  and  by  Raphael  in  the  Sis- 
tine  Chapel  and  in  the  Vatican  became  apparent  in  his  work,  the  'Madonna 
della  Misericordia,'  or  'Madonna  of  Pity,'  lacks  the  simplicity  of  his  earlier 
efforts.  But  although  somewhat  academic  in  treatment,  and  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  its  once  brilliant  colors  have  perceptibly  darkened,  the  splendor  of 
the  composition  and  the  fervor  of  expression  are  such  that  the  picture  justly 
ranks  as  one  of  his  most  important  creations. 

The  Madonna  stands  upon  a  pedestal  in  the  center  of  the  picture  in  an 
attitude  of  supplication,  imploring  pity  from  heaven  for  the  multitude  gath- 
ered under  the  protection  of  her  copious  mantle,  which  is  upheld  by  angels. 
Above  is  the  figure  of  the  Saviour  surrounded  by  angels  holding  floating  scarfs 
attached  to  a  tablet  upon  which  the  words  "misereor  svp.  tvrbam"  are 
inscribed.    Among  those  assembled  about  the  Madonna  is  St.  Dominic,  in 

[37] 


38  MASTERS     IN    ART 

whom,  it  is  said,  Fra  Bartolommeo  painted  the  features  of  Fra  Sebastiano, 
the  donor  of  the  picture;  and  beside  him,  kneeling  in  prayer,  is  a  member 
of  his  family. 

This  picture,  which  Symonds  has  called  "a  poem  of  glad  worship,  a  hymn 
of  praverful  praise,"  aroused  the  enthusiasm  of  Vasari,  who  savs  that  Fra 
Bartolommeo  has  here  "given  proof  of  his  power  over  the  difficulties  of  his 
art,  the  perfection  with  which  he  knew  how  to  manage  the  gradual  diminu- 
tion of  the  shadows,  and  the  softening  of  the  darker  tints,  imparting  extraor- 
dinary relief  to  his  work,  and  showing  his  admirable  excellence  in  coloring, 
design,  and  invention  —  in  a  word,  this  is  as  perfect  a  picture  as  ever  pro- 
ceeded from  his  hands." 

'MARRIAGE    OF    ST.     CATHERINE    OF    SIENA'  PLATE    VI 

THIS  picture,  painted  in  151 1,  was  purchased  in  the  following  year  from 
the  Convent  of  San  Marco  by  the  Florentine  government  and  presented 
to  Jacques  Hurault,  Bishop  of  Autun  and  envoy  of  the  French  king,  Louis 
xii.,  at  Florence,  whose  favor  the  Florentines  were  desirous  of  securing.  It 
was  bequeathed  by  Hurault  to  the  cathedral  of  his  diocese  at  Autun,  France, 
whence  it  was  removed  at  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  finally 
placed  in  the  Louvre,  where  it  now  hangs. 

Fra  Bartolommeo  has  represented  the  Virgin  seated  upon  a  low  throne 
placed  under  a  semi-dome.  She  is  clothed  in  a  red  robe  and  long  blue  mantle 
lined  with  green,  and  over  her  head  three  angels  hold  a  canopy,  or  baldachin, 
of  green — a  favorite  motive  with  Fra  Bartolommeo.  The  infant  Jesus  stands 
beside  his  mother,  one  hand  resting  upon  her  knee,  while  in  the  other  he  holds 
a  marriage  ring  which  he  is  about  to  place  upon  the  finger  of  St.  Catherine 
of  Siena,  who,  in  the  white  habit  of  the  Dominican  Order  in  which  she  is 
always  represented,  kneels  before  him.  On  each  side  of  the  throne  are  groups 
of  saints;  on  the  left,  St.  Peter  in  a  blue  tunic  and  yellow  drapery,  and  behind 
him  St.  Vincent  and  St.  Stephen;  on  the  right  a  young  female  saint  in  a  green 
gown  and  red  cloak,  and  at  her  side  St.  Bartholomew  and  another  saint, 
while  in  the  background  St.  Dominic  and  St.  Francis  are  clasped  in  each 
other's  arms. 

This  masterpiece  marks  a  new  phase  in  Fra  Bartolommeo's  art.  The 
tender  and  meditative  type  shown  in  many  of  his  earlier  works  is  here  re- 
placed bv  a  broader  style.  The  pyramidal  form  of  composition,  which  he 
was  the  first  to  adopt,  gives  prominence  to  the  central  group.  The  saints  on 
either  side  have  a  gravity  of  deportment  and  a  grandeur  in  the  fall  of  their 
draperies  which  illustrate  the  expansion  of  the  master's  mind,  and  all  the  fig- 
ures introduced  are  placed  in  correct  perspective  and  stand  firmly.  The  fore- 
shortening of  the  forms  of  the  flying  angels  is  bolder  and  more  skilful  than 
in  his  earlier  works,  and  the  influence  of  the  Venetian  painters  is  perceptible 
in  the  rich  coloring. 

Although  painted  at  the  time  of  his  collaboration  with  Albertinelli,  the 
picture  is  entirely  by  the  hand  of  Fra  Bartolommeo,  who,  when  it  had  been 
sent  to  France,  painted  another  representation  of  the  same  subject,  but  with 
variations,  to  take  its  place.    This  second  version  is  now  in  the  Pitti  Palace, 

[38] 


FRA     BARTOLOMMEO  39 

Florence.  So  popular  did  the  composition  become,  indeed,  that  it  is  stated 
that  the  studio  of  San  Marco  could  not  supply  repetitions  of  the  subject 
rapidly  enough  to  satisfy  the  demand. 

(THE    PRESENTATION    IN    THE    TEMPLE'  PLATE    VII 

NO  work  by  Fra  Bartolommeo  is  characterized  by  a  more  tender  and 
simple  beauty  than  this  picture  in  the  Imperial  Gallery,  Vienna.  Not- 
withstanding the  defect  of  insufficient  height  in  all  the  figures  save  in  that 
of  the  Virgin,  and  in  spite  of  injury  to  the  painting  caused  by  removal  of  the 
original  glazing,  the  effect  produced  by  the  balance  of  the  composition,  uni- 
son of  the  lines,  and  flow  of  the  draperies  is  so  harmonious  that  the  picture 
is  entitled  to  the  high  place  it  has  always  held  in  his  achievement. 

Upon  the  steps  of  an  altar  the  high  priest  Simeon,  in  a  red  mantle  and  white 
undergarment,  receives  the  infant  Jesus  from  the  hands  of  the  Virgin,  who  is 
clad  in  a  long  blue  cloak,  the  folds  of  which  almost  conceal  her  red  robe  un- 
derneath. St.  Joseph,  in  dark  yellowish  drapery  which  falls  in  ample  folds, 
St.  Anna,  kneeling,  enveloped  in  deep  red,  and  St.  Elizabeth,  with  white  head- 
dress, are  grouped  on  the  other  side  of  the  picture.  The  floor  is  paved  with 
tiles  of  various  colors,  and  the  dark  background  is  relieved  on  either  side  by 
stone  columns.  Between  the  candlesticks  on  the  altar  is  a  small  painting  of 
Moses,  in  a  garment  of  light  red  touched  with  black,  and  holding  the  tables 
of  the  law. 

The  picture  was  painted  in  1516  —  the  year  before  Fra  Bartolommeo's 
death — and  was  originally  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Novitiate  of  San  Marco.  In 
1781  it  was  purchased  by  the  Grand  Duke  Leopold  for  the  Uffizi  Gallery, 
Florence;  but  in  1792  it  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  Emperor  of  Aus- 
tria, and  is  now  in  the  Imperial  Gallery,  Vienna.  It  is  on  wood  and  meas- 
ures about  five  feet  in  height  by  a  little  more  than  that  in  width. 

'THE    MADONNA    AND    CHILD    WITH    ANGELS'  PLATE    VIII 

THIS  picture,  formerly  in  the  Crozat  Collection,  and  now  in  the  Her- 
mitage Gallery,  St.  Petersburg,  was  painted  in  IS  15,  as  is  testified  by 
the  inscription  on  a  tablet  in  the  upper  part  of  the  panel.  The  Madonna  is 
seated.  She  is  enveloped  in  a  blue  mantle  and  holds  the  infant  Jesus,  whose 
arms  are  clasped  about  her  neck.  On  either  side  of  this  group  stand  angels 
clad  in  short  tunics  playing  upon  musical  instruments. 

The  transparency  of  the  coloring  has  been  impaired  by  retouching,  and 
the  shadows  of  the  flesh-tints  have  become  somewhat  opaque,  but  in  spite 
of  these  injuries  this  Madonna  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  Fra  Bartolom- 
meo's representations  of  the  Mother  and  Child. 

•THE    DEPOSITION     FROM    THE    CROSS'  PLATE    IX 

THIS  picture  is  one  of  the  latest,  and  one  of  the  most  beautiful,  of  Fra 
Bartolommeo's  works.  "No  other  treatment  of  the  subject,"  writes 
Hermann  Liicke,  "surpasses  the  beauty  and  pathos  of  the  scene  as  portrayed 
in  this,  the  most  solemn  expression  of  his  creative  facultv." 

[39] 


40  MASTERS    IN     ART 

1  he  bodv  of  the  dead  Christ,  placed  upon  a  white  cloth,  is  supported  by 
St.  John,  who,  in  a  blue  tunic  and  red  mantle,  kneels  at  the  left.  Mary  Mag- 
dalene, in  a  red  robe  with  white  sleeves  and  green  girdle,  clasps  the  Saviour's 
feet,  and  the  Madonna,  wearing  a  dark  red  gown,  gray  cloak,  and  white  veil, 
kneels  at  his  side.    In  the  background  the  base  of  the  cross  is  seen. 

"It  is  not  possible,"  write  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle,  "to  cite  an  instance 
in  which  a  lifeless  form  is  rendered  with  more  flexibility  or  more  anatomical 
correctness.  The  composition  is  one  of  those  that  Fra  Bartolommeo  carried 
out  most  completely,  and  the  whole  group  realizes  at  once  all  the  precepts 
considered  as  final  in  the  sixteenth  century.  It  is  a  modification  and  an  ad- 
vance upon  Perugino's  work,  combining  all  the  tenderness  of  that  painter 
with  greater  selection,  astonishing  individuality,  and  refined  feeling." 

Vasari  asserts  that  the  picture  was  finished  by  Bugiardini,  but  this  has  been 
refuted  by  more  recent  critics,  although  it  is  generally  believed  that  figures 
of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  which  were  at  one  time  added  and  afterwards  re- 
moved as  they  were  not  in  harmony  with  the  rest  of  the  composition,  were 
by  the  hand  of  that  artist. 

'The  Deposition,'  or  'Pieta,'  as  the  picture  is  sometimes  called,  is  in  the 
Pitti  Palace,  Florence,  where  it  hangs  near  Andrea  del  Sarto's  representation 
of  the  same  subject,  painted  a  few  years  later,  and  with  which  it  is  interest- 
ing to  compare  it  (see  Masters  in  Art,  Vol.  n,  part  22,  plate  x).  It  meas- 
ures five  feet  high  by  about  six  and  a  half  feet  wide.    The  figures  are  life-size. 

•MADONNA     BETWEEN     ST.     STEPHEN     AND    ST.     JOHN     BAPTIST'  PLATE     X 

FRA  BARTOLOMMEO  painted  this  altar-piece  in  the  year  1509  for 
the  Chapel  of  the  Sanctuary  in  the  Cathedral  of  Lucca,  where  it  is  still  to 
be  seen.  The  picture  is  a  repetition  of  a  favorite  theme — the  Madonna  and 
Child  with  saints  and  angels — but  in  this  version  of  the  time-honored  sub- 
ject the  figures  are  so  beautifully  conceived,  the  draperies  so  skilfully  dis- 
posed, and  the  coloring  so  harmonious  that  it  is  invested  with  a  new  interest. 
In  a  carefully  balanced  composition,  the  Madonna  with  the  Child  upon  her 
knee  is  seated  upon  a  low  pedestal  with  a  background  of  blue  sky  and  distant 
hills.  On  the  left  is  St.  Stephen,  in  a  deacon's  gown,  holding  a  palm,  and  with 
the  stones  emblematic  of  his  martyrdom  quaintly  depicted  upon  his  head.  St. 
John  the  Baptist,  clad  in  raiment  of  camel's  hair,  stands  on  the  right  of  the 
picture,  a  cross  in  one  hand,  while  with  the  other  he  points  towards  the  Christ- 
child.  M. Gruyer  hasspokenof  thesingular  charm  imparted  tomanyof  FraBar- 
tolommeo's  pictures  by  the  angels  with  variegated  wings  which  he  frequently 
introduced,  "now  flying  lightly  through  the  air,  and  again  seated  tranquilly 
playing  on  the  mandolin  or  lute  or  lifting  their  voices  in  song."  In  this  picture 
two  of  these  graceful  little  beings  are  poised  in  the  air,  holding  above  the 
Madonna's  head  a  jeweled  crown,  from  which  floats  a  saffron-colored  veil, 
the  delicate  color  of  their  wings  relieved  by  the  lighter  tones  of  the  skv  ;  while 
on  the  step  of  the  throne-like  pedestal  a  third  angel  is  seated, "who,  clad  in 
diaphanous  drapery  and  with  wings  outspread,  seems  to  be  singing  to  the  sound 
of  his  lute.    This  little  figure, distinctly  reminiscent  of  those  painted  by  Gio- 

[40] 


FRA     BARTOLOMMEO  41 

vanni  Bellini  and  Carpaccio,  which  Fra  Bartolommeo  had  undoubtedly  seen 
and  studied  when  in  Venice  the  year  before  this  picture  was  painted,  is  one  of 
the  most  charming  creations  of  his  brush. 

A    LIST    OF    THE    PRINCIPAL    PAINTINGS    BY    FRA    BARTOLOMMEO 
WITH    THEIR    PRESENT    LOCATIONS 

AUSTRIA.    Vienna,  Imperial  Gallery:  The  Presentation  in  the  Temple  (Plate  vn) 
l  —  ENGLAND.     Ashridge  Park,  Collection  of  Earl  Brownlow:  Madonna 

—  London,  National  Gallery:  Madonna  and  Child  with  St.  John  —  London,  Col- 
lection of  Sir  W.  J.  Farrar:  Madonna  and  Child  —  London,  Collection  of  Ludwig 
Mond,  Esq:  Holy  Family;  Nativity  —  London,  Collection  of  Lord  Northbrook: 
Holy  Family  (in  part)  —  London,  Collection  of  the  Duke  of  Westminster:  Holy 
Family  —  Panshanger,  Collection  of  Earl  Cowper:  Holy  Family  (Plate  iv);  Burial 
of  Sant'  Antonino  —  Richmond,  Collection  of  Sir  Frederick  Cook:  Madonna  and 
Child  with  St.  Elizabeth  and  St.  John  (Plate  i)  — FRANCE.  Besancon  Cathedral:  The 
Madonna  of  Ferry  Carondelet  (Plate  in)  —  Paris,  Louvre:  'Noli  me  Tangere1 ;  Annun- 
ciation; Marriage  of  St.  Catherine  of  Siena  (Plate  vi)  —  Pezenas,  Owned  by  M.  Charles 
Alaffre:  St.  Sebastian  —  GERMANY.  Berlin  Gallery:  Assumption  (in  part) — ■ 
ITALY.  Florence,  Academy:  Vision  of  St.  Bernard;  St.  Vincent  Ferrer;  Portrait  of 
Savonarola  as  St.  Peter  Martyr;  Madonna  and  Child  (fresco);  Half-figures  of  Saints  and 
of  Christ  (in  fresco  and  in  oil)  —  Florence,  Corsini  Gallery:  Holy  Family  (in  part)  — 
Florence,  Church  of  San  Marco:  Madonna  and  Saints — Florence,  Museum  of 
San  Marco  [refectory]  :  Crucifixion  (fresco);  [Savonarola's  cell]  :  Madonna  and 
Child  (fresco);  Christ  at  Emmaus  (fresco)  — Florence,  Gallery  of  the  Hospital  of 
Santa  Maria  Nuova:  The  Last  Judgment  (finished  by  Albertinelli)  —  Florence,  Pitti 
Palace:  Deposition  from  the  Cross  (Plate  ix);  St.  Mark;  Christ  and  the  Evangelists;  Mar- 
riage of  St.  Catherine  of  Siena;  Holy  Family;  Ecce  Homo  (fresco) — Florence,  Uffizi 
Gallery:  Isaiah;  Job;  Nativity  and  Circumcision;  Madonna  surrounded  by  Saints  (unfin- 
ished) (cf.  page  22)  — Lucca  Cathedral:  Madonna  between  St.  Stephen  and  St.  JohnBap- 
tist  (Plate  x) — Lucca  Gallery:  Madonna  della  Misericordia  (Plate  v);  St.  Catherine 
and  Mary  Magdalene  in  Adoration  (Plate  11)  —  Milan,  Collection  of  the  Marq^uis 
Visconti-Venosta:  Holy  Family —  Naples  Museum:  Assumption  —  Piandi  Mugnone, 
Hospital  of  Santa  Maria  Maddalena:  Annunciation  (fresco);  'Noli  me  Tangere' 
(fresco);  Head  of  Christ  (fresco);  St.  Dominic  and  St.  Francis  (fresco);  Crucifixion  (fresco) 

—  Pisa,  Church  of  St.  Catherine:  The  Madonna  with  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  (in  part)  — 
Prato,  Owned  by  Dr.  R.  Lanetti:  Portrait  of  Savonarola  —  Rome,  Borghese  Gallery: 
Holy  Family  (in  part)  —  Rome,  Corsini  Gallery:  Holy  Family  —  Rome,  Quirinal 
Palace:  St.  Peter;  St.  Paul  —  Rome,  Sciarra-Colonna  Gallery:  Madonna  and  Child 
with  St.  John  (in  part)  — Siena,  Academy:  St.  Catherine  of  Alexandria  (in  part);  Mary 
Magdalene  (in  part)  —  Venice,  Seminario:  Madonna  and  Child  —  RUSSIA.  St.  Peters- 
burg, Hermitage  Gallery:  Madonna  and  Child  with  Angels  (Plate  vm)  —  SWITZER- 
LAND.   Geneva,  Rath  Museum:  Annunciation  (in  part). 


jfra  Bartolommeo  3Stf)ltograpt)£ 

A    LIST    OF    THE    PRINCIPAL    BOOKS    AND    MAGAZINE    ARTICLES 
DEALING    WITH     FRA    BARTOLOMMEO 

THE  most  comprehensive  study  of  Fra  Bartolommeo  may  be  found  in 
Gustave  Gruyer's'Fra  Bartolommeo  della  Porta  et  Mariotto  Alberti- 
nelli' (Paris,  1886).    Vasari's  biography  of  Fra  Bartolommeo  in  his  'Lives 

[41] 


42  MASTERS     IN     ART 

of  the  Painters,'  with  notes  by  E.  H.  and  E.  W.  Blashrteld  and  A.  A.  Hop- 
kins, in  the  English  translation  edited  by  them  (New  York,  1897  J,  is  also  of 
great  value.  To  these  may  be  added  Padre  Vincenzo  Marchese's  life  of 
Fra  Bartolommeo  in  his  'Lives  of  Painters,  Sculptors,  and  Architects  of  the 
Order  of  S.  Dominic,'  translated  by  C.  P.  Meehan  (Dublin,  1852J. 

BALDINUCCI,  F.  Notiziede'  professori  del  disegno.  Florence,  1681-1728  —  Berin- 
SON,  B.  Florentine  Painters  of  the  Renaissance.  London,  1900  —  Bottari,  G.  G. 
Raccolta  di  lettere  sulla  pictura,  scultura,  ed  architettura.  Milan,  1822-25  —  Burck- 
hardt,  J.  Der  Cicerone.  Leipsic,  1898 — Cartwright,  J.  I  lie  Painters  of  Florence. 
London,  1901  — Castan,  A.  La  Physionomie  primative  du  retable  de  Fra  Bartolommeo 
a  la  cathedrale  de  Besancon.  Besancon,  1889 — Ciardetti,  L.  Di  un  quadro  rappre- 
sentantela  Madre  di  Misericordia  di  Fra  Bartolommeo.  Florence,  1835  —  Crowe,  J.  A., 
and  Cavalcasei.le,  G.  B.  History  of  Painting.  London,  1866  —  Dumas,  A.  Fra  Bar- 
tolommeo (in  Italiens  et  Flamands).  Paris,  1862  —  Eastlake,  Sir  C.  L.  Materials  for  a 
History  of  Oil  Painting.  London,  1869 — Frantz,  E.  Fra  Bartolommeo  della  Porta. 
Studie  liber  die  Renaissance.  Regensburg,  1879  —  Gave,  G.  Carteggio  inedito.  Flor- 
ence, 1S39— 40  —  Gruver,  G.  Fra  Bartolommeo  della  Porta  et  Mariotto  Albertinelli. 
Paris[i886] — Jameson,  A.  Memoirs  of  Early  Italian  Painters.  Boston,  1896  —  Knapp,  F. 
Fra  Bartolommeo  und  die  Schule  von  San  Marco.  Halle,  1903  — Kugler,  F.  T.  Italian 
Schools  of  Painting:  revised  by  A.  H.  Layard.  London,  1900  —  Lanzi,  L.  History  of 
Painting  in  Italy :  trans,  by  T.  Roscoe.  London,  1847 — Lubke,  W.  History  of  Art.  New 
York,  1S78 — Lucre,  H.  Fra  Bartolommeo  (in  Dohme's  Kunst  und  Kiinstler,  etc.). 
Leipsic,  1879  —  Mantz,  P.  Fra  Bartolommeo  (in  Blanc's  Histoire  des  peintres).  Paris, 
1876  —  Marchese,  V.  Lives  of  Painters,  Sculptors,  and  Architects  of  the  Order  of  S.  Dom- 
inic: trans,  by  C.  P.  Meehan.  Dublin,  1852  —  Muntz,  E.  Historie  de  Tart  pendant  la 
Renaissance.  Paris,  1  889-9  1 — Neu-Mayr.  Descrizione  di  due  dipinti.  Venice,  1833  — 
Oliphaxt,  M.  O.  W.  Makers  of  Florence.  London,  1876 — Rio,  A.  F.  De  Tart  Chre- 
tien. Paris,  1864  —  Rubieri,  E.  II  Ritratto  di  Fra  Giralamo.  Florence,  1855 — Ru- 
mohr,  C.  F.  von.  Italienische  Forschungen.  Berlin,  1S27-31 — Scott,  L.  Fra  Barto- 
lommeo. London,  1881 — StillmaN,  W.  J.  Old  Italian  Masters.  New  York,  1892  — 
Svmonds,  J.  A.  Renaissance  in  Italy.  New  York,  1888 — Vasari,  G.  Lives  of  the  Paint- 
ers, New  York,  1897 — Woltmann,  A.,  AND  Woermann,  K.  History  of  Painting. 
London,  1887. 

magazine   articles 

LANNEE  dominicaine,  1872:  L'Abbe  de  Beausejour  and  PereBayonne;  La  Vierge 
f  de  Ferry  Carondelet.  1875,  1876:  Pere  Bayonne;  Comment  j'ai  retrouve  le  Saint 
Sebastien  de  Fra  Bartolommeo —  Archivio  storico  dell'  arte,  1870:  E.  A.;  La  Phys- 
ionomie primitive  du  retable  de  Fra  Bartolommeo  a  la  cathedrale  de  Besancon  (a  review)  — 
Art  Journal,  1902:  J.  P.  Richter;  Fra  Bartolommeo  —  Giornale  ligustico  di  arch- 
eologia  storia  E  belle  arii,  1S78:  E.  Ridolri;  Notizie  sopra  varie  opere  di  Fra  Barto- 
lommeo  —  Irish  Monthly,  Vol.  10:  R.  Mulholland;  Fra  Bartolommeo,  Dominican 
Painter — Jahrbucher  fur  Kunstwissenschaft,  1870:  A.  von  Zahn;  Die  Handzeich- 
nungeo  des  Fra  Bartolommeo  im  Besitz  der  Frau  Grossherzogin  Sophie  von  Sachsen- Weimar 
—  Magazine  of  Art,  1883:  J.  Cartwright;  A  Painter's  Friendship  —  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury, 1900:  M.  H.Witt;  Five  New  Pictures  in  the  National  Gallery  —  Zeitsch  rift  fur 
bildende  Kunst,  1891:  W.  Lvibke;  Fra  Bartolommeo' s  Madonna  Carondelet. 

[42] 


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SCOPE 

This  supplement  is  universally  pronounced  the  most  complete  illustrated  work  on  the  subject  ever  compiled.  It  is 
divided  into  five  sections,  dealing  respectively  with  Turner's  pictures  in  oil,  water-color  drawings,  monochromes, 
Liber  Studiorum,  and  the  engravings  after  his  works. 

AUTHORSHIP 

Articles  on  the  various  fields  of  Turner's  activity  are  contributed  by  the  well-known  and  emincn:  critics  M.  Robert 
de  la  Sizeranne,  Mr.  C.  F.  Bell,  and  Mr.  Walter  Shaw  Sparrow. 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Reproductions  in  color  form  an  important  feature  of  the  book,  and  the  Editor   his   been   fortunate   enough   to  obtain 
from  private  collections  and  other  sources  a  number  of  hitherto  unpublished  works  of  great  beauty  and  interest,  which 
effectively  demonstrate  the  artist's  extraordinary  versatility.       In  addition  to  the  colored  reproductions,  the  black-and- 
white  illustrations  are  numerous  and  attractive. 
A  special  feature  of  the  number  is  I J  plates  in  color,  showing  different  phases  of  the  master's  -work  in  sepia,  otl-patnt- 
ing,  -water-color,  and  body-color,  on  gray  paper.    Rare  proofs  and  plates  from  Liber  Studiorum,  from  the  -well-known  collec- 
tion of  Mr.  IV.   G.  Ra-wlinson,  -will  be  represented  by  lb  beautiful  prints  in  facsimile. 


JOHN  LANE  THr™hLAEvYe-AD  NEW  YORK 


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rbturn  to  dL1c£>AV  US£ 

"  U£SK  PROM  \PHrru  _ 


(^8837810)476- 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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PIANOS 


HE  pUARTER- 
GRAND 

It  is  a  perfect  Grand  piano 
with  the  sweetness  and  qual- 
ity of  the  larger  Grands  —  adapted  to  the 
limitations  of  the  average  room.  &  It  occupies 
practically  no  more  space  than  an  Upright.  * 
It  costs  no  re  than  the  large  Upright.  & 
It  weighs  1  the  larger  Uprights.  &  It 

is  a  more  ece  of  furniture  than  an 

Upright!  ^  (S  be  moved  through   stair- 

ways  anu      >  smaller    than    will     admit 

even  the  small    Uprights.     &•       &      &      & 


MADE     SOLELY     BY 


L 


CHICKERING  &  SONS 

PIANOFORTE  MAKERS  :  ESTABLISHED  1823 

812    TREMONT  STREET,   BOSTON 


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